The Current Sexual Revolution In the United States

   I wish the impossible: that I could read what future historians have to say about this period in American history. I would be immensely interested to find out what, say, twenty or more years of perspective will make of two mostly undoubted generalizations that characterize the last very few years.

   The first and most clearly causative phenomenon to be noted is the almost explosive attention paid to dubious and much worse sexual practices perpetrated by American males, with primary attention focused on men who are to various degrees prominent. There has been no talk of the behavior of the hoi polloi, if only because their behavior would have to be revealed via cumbersome research, rather than by a combination of accusations and confessions.

   My own assessment of this two-fold, call it movement, is mixed. On the one hand, the revelations of largely male sexual behavior seem very plausible indeed, given, especially, the widespread quasi voluntary confessions. Little has been remarked about transgressions, where they exist, by American women.  They would in any case probably amount to a small fraction of that of men and be practically free of the violence, the coerciveness of men’s behavior.

   Most  of this strikes me as very positive, even though I am doubtful that this wave of confessions and accusations will have a permanent effect on American sexual practices. Remorse and virtuous resolutions will weaken and wane, with little left by the time a couple of decades have passed. While I am anything but seriously knowledgeable about evolution, I am confident that experts could point to passages confirming that pessimism in texts made up of the writings of Darwin and his followers.

   Now more briefly to my second point. Just about everything that has been going on has been remarkable, even shockingly free of call it procedural safeguards. No one questions reports of wrongdoing in ways that would make sure that the versions put forward are the most voracious possible under the circumstances. Even the confessions of perpetrators deserve to be questioned, given lots of psychological reasons that make misstatements possible. Not that this is determinative in the cases we are looking at, but it is worth noting that many of the drastic changes that have already been made would probably not have been required if they depended on the verdict of a court of law.

   There is a cost, not much mentioned, namely the loss of the services and ministrations of a series of talented men. They most certainly are sinners or were in the past, with many engaging in reprehensible behavior that however wrongly American society has tolerated in the past.